S'PORE, AUSTRALIA IN SIGNATURE JOINT EXERCISE

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and Australian Defence Force (ADF) demonstrated their ability to work together in combat through a complex amphibious beach landing operation involving air, land and sea assets on 1 Nov.

The operation was a component of Exercise Trident, a large-scale bilateral exercise held in Queensland, Australia, involving more than 2,100 personnel from both nations.

It was a massive feat of planning and synchronisation involving troops from 1st Battalion, Singapore Guards (1 Gds) and the ADF being launched from Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) Landing Ship Tank RSS Resolution in fast crafts.

As they hit the beach, two Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) AH-64D Apache attack helicopters flew overhead to provide cover.

Signature exercise

This was the first edition of Exercise Trident after both armed forces committed to developing it into their signature military exercise - with greater scale and sophistication - under the Singapore-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership concluded by both prime ministers in 2015.

Conducted from 28 Oct to 4 Nov, Exercise Trident was the ship-to-shore component of the two month-long Exercise Wallaby. The first four days comprised integration training.

This year's Exercise Trident featured the largest contribution from the SAF since it was launched in 2013.

SAF platforms from all three Services participated, including the Lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo V from the Army; the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter, CH-47 Chinook helicopter, AS 332M Super Puma helicopter and Heron-1 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle from the RSAF; as well as the Landing Ship Tank RSS Resolution from the RSN.

Noting that Exercise Trident had increased in scale and complexity since it started in 2013, Chief of Staff-Joint Staff Brigadier-General (BG) Chia Choon Hoong said the exercise is a "clear demonstration of the strategic partnership between both militaries".

"It also provides us with great opportunities to exercise a wide spectrum of our operational concepts and capabilities," he added.

"Going forward, we look forward to more intense and professional exercises between the ADF and the SAF," BG Chia said. "The ADF will be an important partner in our journey towards SAF 2030."

Major-General (MG) Paul McLachlan, Commander of 1st Division, Australian Army added: "It's great for us to come here and understand the capabilities of the Singapore Army. Because if there is ever a need to work together in the region, the best way to do that is understand each other, and make sure that we get the best out of each other."

Joint training

This year's Exercise Trident provided opportunities for both armed forces to enhance their professionalism and interoperability. Before the amphibious operation, both forces went through integration training in urban operations as well as helicopter-insertion operations.

ADF rifleman Private Joe Underwood spoke of his experience: "We have been doing a lot of integration training with Singaporeans, exchanging our urban drills and general groundwork drills. It's been good, we learnt quite a lot from them."

2nd Lieutenant Ewan Ferguson, an assistant platoon commander in 1 Gds, felt that there were many takeaways from working with the ADF.

"They have been deployed overseas... So the opportunity to draw from these experiences and lessons they have learnt is incredibly valuable," said the 20-year-old who is born in Singapore to British parents.

The SAF and the ADF share a long history of military cooperation, including operational deployments such as in the Middle East and Afghanistan.